New Perspectives on the Integration of Immigrants

Abstract

Norway has only recently started to experience firsthand the challenges, difficulties, and benefits associated with a large and expanding immigrant population. In facing these issues today, Norway has some huge advantages over traditional immigrant countries, such as the US. Firstly, Norway can try to glean valuable insights from decades of social science research on the topic of immigration and can thus hope to learn from the previous experiences of other countries with a longer tradition of immigration. Secondly, Norway is itself in many ways in an unprecedented position to document, monitor and analyze the challenges, difficulties and benefits of immigration while they are taking place. This is largely due to a vast infrastructure of high-quality micro-data available on many aspects of economic and social life generally deemed relevant and valuable in the social sciences and for policymaking, both in Norway and elsewhere. Thus, the relatively new experiences with immigration and immigrants in Norway provide unique opportunities both for the re-evaluation of previous research and for suggesting new avenues of inquiry. In this sense, Norwegian social science and the Norwegian experience with immigration can also provide knowledge and insights of potential value for many other countries, even those with much longer histories of immigration.